I Just Got Hit By an #Edcamp Bus

So, I was at my first Edcamp this weekend.  Edcamp Milwaukee (#edcampMKE) was held at South Milwaukee High School (my home district), put together by two incredible edtech leaders - Tammy Lind and Chad Kafka.  Edcamp Milwaukee was the 100th edcamp in the world and the first in Wisconsin.

I just don't think there is anything you can compare an Edcamp experience to in education today.  Seriously ... it's like getting hit by a bus of positive ideas and people.  Why else would people drive four hours or cross state lines to come to a conference with no set agenda?

The most amazing thing to me was how much learning a person could do at a time:
• You might be physically sitting in one session, listening and contributing.
• You find a few moments to tweet out the best ideas from the session you are in and jot a few notes into Evernote to remember later.
• At the same time, you might be watching a Google Doc of notes from another session take shape.
• Sending out message to teachers in other sessions
• And then, all of a sudden, someone who is not even at edcamp sends you a tweet because they are following and are interested in your session.

And that sums up a session at edcamp - a place where teachers are concerned about what is happening not only in their own room, but making an impact around the world.  This is what most surprised me about my edcamp experience - how fast learning can happen when you collaborate.


A few notes from my sessions:
Evernote - there is a real excitement with teachers to create digital portfolios with Evernote.  I would love to do this.  One of the great things about being a music teacher is having students for many years.  I have had some students for 8 years - wouldn't it be great to document that progress in an authentic way?  But I have one HUGE issue with this as a music teacher - I have about 350 students this year (and I think that's my smallest number in the last decade due to schedule changes).  With only one hour/week with each elementary student, is this possible to do?  Love the idea of emailing recordings to parents.
Here is a link to a site about creating e-portfolios in Evernote.

Giving the Classroom Back to the Students - This was my "deep thoughts" session of the day.  My brain was in overdrive trying to listen to others, participate, take notes, and send out an occasional tweet of the incredible thinking going on in the room.  My favorite notes from this session:

• The students know the technology.  Teachers know the content.  Make the connection.
• Technology can build face to face relationships.  When a teacher uses technology to open a student's mind, the student realizes how much that teacher cares about his/her individual learning.  That is a relationship.
• How many people in education have sat down and written what they really believe about education and learning - before writing any lesson plans or choosing any technology.
• Turn "just in case" learning into "just in time" learning.  Technology makes it possible to differentiate for students, making learning personalized.
• The thing that holds up most teachers is exactly the same thing that holds up most students - the fear of change.  Learning is supposed to be uncomfortable.

Google Certified Process - I hope Google opens up a bunch more Google Academies in the future, because I think there will be so many teachers interested in the GCT process.  I was interested in starting this journey prior to attending edcampmke, and now I am really interested.

Students as Content Creators - We must teach students the difference between cheating and collaboration. How many times do you see teachers sitting at lunch with teaching manuals, asking each other how they teach a particular lesson effectively?  That's collaboration - not cheating.  Students need to know the difference and how to collaborate effectively.

EdcampMKE schedule

Apple TV - My love of Apple TV is no surprise to readers of this blog (here and here).  The problem with Apple TV (and Apple even admits it) is that Apple TV is still a niche or hobby interest.  People don't "get" it because it is not as pervasive as other Apple products.  Those of us that "get" Apple TV and use it have to keep talking it up, because it truly is a game changer in education.

App Share - I was not in this session, but I was watching the Google Doc from another session.  Here is the link to it.

Going Google - Our district is about 6 months into Going Google.  It was good to hear the ups and downs from other districts as they make the same transition.  One note I took from this session was about the digital divide that going Google may exacerbate - the students with technology at home will do better with Google Apps, but those without technology at home may become frustrated with themselves and others.

Another note - Edcamps are free for participants and depend on the generosity of volunteers and sponsors.  Many thanks to the volunteers and sponsors of EdcampMke, especially Evernote (I won an Evernote premium gift card!)

But what do the students say?

This the 14th in a series in which 5th grade musicians are collaborating and researching using Edmodo and using Google Apps to create Sites, Docs, and more ... oh my!

Our school is in the midst of MAPS testing, which means the computer lab is mostly off limits during this week.  I have scraped together a little bit of lab time, but the break is good for the kids.  They are going to camp next week, and we need some time to work on camp songs (we need both tambourines AND technology to make life happy).

But before singing camp songs together, I took a few minutes of each class to do some reflection on our Google Apps project so far.  What's going well?  What's not?  What's easy?  What's hard?  Why?  The answers were honest and positive.  And generally, if a student said something in the project was "hard", we talked more as a class and came to the conclusion that it is hard for one (or both) of these reasons:

• Research in general is hard work
     - and -
• Students are wanting to go deeper than they are accustomed to working

Student reflections so far, collected on Linoit.com

Some other discussion points came up:
• Some students said they were going slower than they would normally go.  But not because the technology was slowing them down - because they were collecting so much research.  Some expressed frustration when they developed questions in their mind to which they could not find answers.  Some wanted more sites for research.  What they haven't learned is that sometimes in research, you have to draw the line and say "enough", but it's a good problem to have.
• We talked about "digging deeper" in our project.  The students seem surprised at the amount of work research takes, but they remain enthusiastic about it.  Like planting a large tree, research is a big project, and it takes more work to dig that hole.  If you don't dig deep enough, the tree will not flourish.
• General excitement over the use of Google Apps.  Everyone loves it.

Two teacher observations from this discussion:
• The comments from the students really focused on the research aspect of the project and less on the GAFE aspect.  At first I was disappointed about this - but then I realized that perhaps we hit a "golden mean" at which the technology creates excitement but remains a tool.
• After this discussion, I am convinced even more that Google Apps does impact student achievement.  And the comments from the students about research and digging deeper reveal that they are putting pressure on themselves to create a product that the world will see.

New Reflections on Reflection

I know I'm going against the stream here, but I have fallen out of love with the Reflection App.  The problem is that it just has too many hiccups, especially when compared to Apple TV.

My middle school choir room has a new Apple TV set up.  I have not a single issue with it in a month of use.  When I am working in my elementary school's computer lab, I plug in my personal Apple TV.  I never have a problem.  But in my elementary classroom - the room where I spent about 75% of my time, I do not have an HDMI projector.  So thus far, I have been using Reflection in this classroom.  I have many problems.

First, Airplay through Reflection cannot be launched as quickly as with Apple TV.  In my situation, I need to first set up an ad hoc network, have the iPad connect to that network, launch Reflection on the laptop, and then set Airplay to mirror to the laptop.  Now you have a window that I usually move from my laptop screen to the Smartboard (I choose not to mirror my laptop so I can have two monitors at once), maximize the Reflection window, and hope that I don't accidentally turn the iPad to portrait orientation because then the window reverts back to a smaller size.  I can do this all pretty fast, but do you know what kids will start to do by this time?

To make matters more difficult, you can get through all of these steps and it freezes or doesn't work.  Some apps crash Reflection completely (I have a recorder playing app that does this).  Displaying photos last week caused Reflection to freeze up many times, leading to several force-quits.  If I did not have the photo on the iPad before launching AirPlay, it would freeze.

I realize there is a very good possibility that the problem is with my ad hoc network, or some other issue.  But the fact remains - Apple TV never gives me a problem (I do not need to create an ad hoc network for Apple TV).  As Steve Jobs would say "It just works".  Apple TV does not require me to change networks mid-class, freeze, or revert to a smaller size just because I change orientations.

So, I have ordered the Kanex ATV-Pro Apple TV adapter for my elementary classroom so I can hook up my Apple TV to a VGA projector.  When it arrives, I'll let you know how it works.

The Most Underrated Google App

This is the 13th (lucky #13) post in a series in which 5th grade musicians are collaborating and researching using Edmodo and creating Sites in Google Apps for Education.

Ahh, Google Apps!  How do we love thee?  We love your Docs.  We love your Forms. We love your Presentations, your Sites, your Mail, and Calendar.

But what about the Video app?  Is it the ugly stepsister of the other apps?  Is it the Rodney Dangerfield of Google Apps for Education, begging for respect?

I have come to really like the Video app (I am talking specifically about the Video app within your Google Apps domain).  If I am uploading a screencast that will be shared with students, I absolutely put it in our domain's Video app.  Putting a screencast in Videos allows you to share with anyone (or everyone) in your GAFE domain at any time just like you would share a Doc or a Site.

 Here are some of the great benefits of the Google Video app:

• If you are already in Google Apps for Education, then uploading to Videos is easier than logging into another service such as SchoolTube or TeacherTube (both of which I use).  The uploading to GAFE Videos is simple and straightforward.
• If you collaborate with other teachers, you can easily share Videos with each other.
• You don't have any of YouTube's problems with inappropriate comments, related videos, and advertisements.  With the Video app, none of these problems come up.  Comments are allowed in the Videos app, but they cannot be anonymous.
• You can embed the video on other websites.
• You have the same tight security you enjoy with other Google Apps
• Best thing - you can share it to everyone in your domain, groups of people, or even just individuals.

Google's own comparison chart from their online training modules

Only recently have I realized how great the Video app is.  It allows you to be in more than one place at a time.  At this point in the project, I have students all over the spectrum of completion.  I need to provide extension for the leaders and provide more support for those struggling.  So what do you do?  For your those who are ahead, you pick another web 2.0 activity (such as Voki) and record a screencast about how to create it and put it on your Site.  For those who are struggling or were absent, you have screencasts they can review.

Videos allows you to create "Just in case" content for students and deliver it "Just in time".  Talk about personalized learning and differentiation!  By not sharing the video with everyone at once, it does not distract the other students who really need to stay focused on writing biographies.  I am recording several screencasts of extension activities and keeping them in my Video tab.  When a student is ready for a new activity, I just go to my Video tab and share it to them.  Instantly, the Video is in the student's account so they can view it and start creating.  And this does not take the teacher out of the equation at all - in fact, as a teacher, you have to be even more aware of where your students are at so you match content to their abilities and deliver the content "just in time".

(Embedding content like a Voki in a Google Site is an advanced skill for young students because you have to create the Voki in one sitting (so you do not have to create an account), get the embed code, and insert the code as HTML in your Site.  To make it easier, my screencast told the students to create a new page for just the Voki.  That way, when the student pushes the HTML button in Sites, there won't be any confusion about where to paste the code.  Your student leaders can handle this.  One of my 5th graders did it entirely at home, and he had never even heard of Voki previously.  All because I shared a 4 minute video to him.)

Some things to know about Videos:
• Google intends that Videos is only meant for teachers and faculty.  At least at this time, it is not meant to be a place where students can upload their own videos.
• Your GAFE administrator has to whitelist each user individually for uploading.  I am not a GAFE administrator, nor am I a GCT, but I do not believe Videos can be opened to an entire domain or organizational unit en masse.  Each user who wishes to have uploading privileges must request permission.  On the other hand, no whitelisting is needed to receive the videos - meaning a teacher can share to students in their domain.
• There are size limits for file uploads.  Currently, it is 300 mb per upload.  I also believe there is an overall domain limit for uploaded videos, meaning it would not be an appropriate repository for videos that do not need to be specifically shared within your domain.
• Do not use the Google Video app to embed videos on Sites that are intended for the general public.  The video will not show up on the page unless the viewer is logged into his/her GAFE account and the video has been shared to him/her.  For this reason, if I record a video of a student performance, I would upload to SchoolTube or another similar service.

Rounding 2nd Base

This is the 12th part in a series about 5th grade musicians as they research composers using Edmodo and create Sites using Google Apps for Education.

Last week, we reached a major tipping point in our project.  Students are finishing up research, the Sites have all been created, the biography Docs have been created, inserted into Sites, and shared to me.  Now the worktime has begun.  I think the students and I all realized this at the same time, and you could actually feel the atmosphere in the lab relax.  I think there were even some audible sighs of relief. Definitely rounding 2nd base - what's next?

Our Sites are going to be more than just biographies and maps.  Students have several other pages to create and insert content.  Students are now at the point where I have given them an example website, and they need to create similar pages and content.  Not that I want them to copy mine - they just need to see what the expectations are at this point for finishing the project in their own way.  Each Site must have five required pages:

Biography - embedded Google Doc biography (formatting text and paragraph structure does not work as well in Sites as in Docs, and inserting media into the Site is an important skill in this project).
Composers and Me - answer these two essential questions:  What makes a musician successful?  What character traits [composer name] have that made him/her successful?  These are two of the questions we  used to start our unit.
Famous Songs - embedded YouTube video from a teacher-created playlist which was added to our Edmodo library.  All the students need is the URL from the playlist.
Historical Connections - What else was happening in the world when your composer was alive?  Name an author, scientist, and artist who was alive at the same time as your composer.  Again, I have put timelines into our Edmodo library.
Where in the World? - Maps of where the composer was born or lived.  Can also be images of important places from composer's life.

This is a lot of work for 5th grade students who are both new to research and to Google Apps.
~~~
I really wrestled with this question a few months ago:
Should I create a template website and have students change content?
OR
Should students create websites from scratch?

To template or Not to template ... that is the question.  I chose to have students create website from scratch.  Looking back, it was the right decision, because the students can definitely handle it.  But now, I need to communicate to the students the expectations for completing the website.  We have always had an example website, which I shared at the beginning of the project, but now I added a few more directions on each page for the students.  Students should be able to create pages and insert content because we have already done that with maps and biographies.  Here is a link to the example Site.  But I change it when needed for students.

A note about the decision to have students create Sites from scratch or from a template:  It comes down to three things:
• What do you expect the students to create?  How complicated will it be?
• What is the student's prior experience with Google Apps?
• How much time do you have to devote to the project?

You have to start with a clear view of what a proficient project should be.  An easy Site (working only within Sites and not inserting other media) could be accomplished by younger students.  Also, in a few years, students that have had more experience with Google Apps could do this same project faster.  I have spent a considerable amount of time teaching Google Apps (yeah!) because this is a pilot project in our district.  And if you don't have enough computer time, perhaps using a template Site is the way to go - it is still not cheating the students out of great research and collaboration.

But any teacher that embarks on a GAFE Sites project will need to determine for themselves if students are ready to create Sites from scratch.

Finally, I am excited for kids who will be ready to go above-and-beyond and insert other content.  More on that in an upcoming post ...

Dealing With All That Student Work

This is the 11th part in a series detailing the progress of our 5th grade musicians as they use Edmodo and Google Apps for Education to research composers and create Sites about them.

This project took about 2 months to prepare (January-March).  A LOT of time was spent becoming a wanna-be expert at Edmodo and Google Sites, finding and uploading content for our Edmodo library, learning from the tech staff about our new Google Apps domain, creating permission slips for students, making lesson plans to be sure everything would roll out in a logical order, etc.  This was the first student Google Apps project in our district - we figured it would work, but there was a lot of unknown territory.  

Once we started the project, the first month actually took less prep time.  Most of the prep work at this point involved creating screencasts to post in Edmodo, keeping track of who posted and replied in Edmodo, and working with our tech team resolving issues as we moved into student Google Apps.

Now, classes of collaboration in Edmodo and creating Sites and Docs have now given way to the clearer skies and smoother sailing of student worktime.

But that means all of that student work is now ending up in my lap(top).  Or more correctly, all that student work has now been shared to my teacher Google Account.  I am making sure everyone has a Site created correctly, making sure everyone has shared biography Docs to my account, commenting on student biographies, and helping students who were absent or had missteps along the way.  One of the most challenging parts of a research project with students is helping students who are struggling readers.  Research is one of the most reading-intensive projects we teach.  It does not matter if the project is tech-focused or if it is pencil and paper, struggling readers will end up days behind the rest of the class without support.    

I could have been an English teacher or a math teacher - I like those areas.  Come to think of it, I really like science, too.  Especially chemistry and physics.  I think my students are surprised (and sadly, some teachers) when they realize a music teacher knows how to teach these other areas.  Music teachers are incredibly picky, especially when working with ensembles.  I think students are surprised to see the high level of quality I expect of their essays.

A few things I have learned about student work online:
• Be sure you have students name Docs they share to you in a specific format.  All of my students named their essay "Biography [composer name] S12" where S refers to the homeroom teacher's name and 12 refers to 2012.  It hearkens back to our Site creation in which we also used S12 or D12 to denote homeroom/year.  It makes finding the Docs in your teacher account much easier.  I know there are fancier ways to get students to share to a collection, but face it - it's just not going to happen with 5th grade students.  I am lucky they all shared to me and not some other teacher in a different building that also starts with "S".
• The commenting feature in Google Docs is great.  When students open their Doc, all of my comments appear, telling each student what needs to be improved.  Of course, this needs to be done to 50 Docs outside of class time.  But, I can do it from anywhere without taking piles of student work.
• 5th grade students will spell the word "Biography" in so many different ways, making it nearly impossible to find their Doc in your account ... But since the teacher is an editor, I just fixed it quickly.
• Google Apps usually does a great job of letting you know who owns a Doc, but not such a great job of letting you know who owns a Site.  I constantly refer to printouts to find out which Site goes with each student.  It was suggested by a member of our tech team that students put their first name in the description of their Site, thus attaching a name to a Site.  Don't know if we'll get to that this year, but next year, I would do that.
• To make matters more confusing, some students created two Sites on their own because the first Site did not work correctly.  Taking the time to do some Google "housecleaning" and making sure every student has only one Site and one biography before moving ahead is a good idea.  I am lucky, because these students are just starting Google Apps, meaning their account is relatively empty.
• Teachers automatically become editors/collaborators of student Sites, but not co-owners, meaning that there are parts of student Sites that a teacher cannot change.  You have to log in as the student to do this (for instance, if the student created two Sites, the teacher must log in as the student to delete the defunct Site).
• In a paperless research project, it is hard to know where each student is in the process.  When I had piles of papers in my room, I could just go through the pile and sort it quickly.  Not so anymore.  Does Johnny have 5 facts collected or 25?  Does Susie have 3 sentences of an essay written or 3 paragraphs?  During our worktime, I get through the room about once every 10 minutes to be sure everyone is making progress.  Perhaps I could have a poster on the wall where students could report this information to me quickly as they leave the lab. Asking for a response in Edmodo would probably work, too.
• The advanced students are getting to the point where essays are already being finished up.  One of my next projects is to put together a list for finishing the basic requirements of the Site and then a list of extension activities that can be embedded into their Site.  I want those high-flying students to take their Site as far as they can go with it.
• When I did this project in my room with file folders of biographies and paper/pencil fact sheets, it was a struggle to get 15 facts out of each group of two students.  Now, students are easily getting to 25+ facts on their own.  I also showed students how to sort their fact spreadsheet today so their facts would be roughly in the order of their essay.  There was audible "oohing" and "aahing" in the computer lab.

Going Google for this project has increased the workload 10 times.  The next time I do this project, it will be MUCH easier.  But every minute has been well worth it for the students and myself so far.  I just hope we can get it all accomplished as the year starts to draw to a close.

Flipping Out? Is Music the Original Flipped Classroom?

Wow ... the pendulum of educational technology is swinging wildly lately over the Flipped Classroom.

The concept is that you record your presentations for students to view at home, allowing teachers use class time for even more positive learning (thus flipping the usual order of lecture at school, homework at home).  The backlash suggests that if students won't put quality time into homework at home, will they watch videos?  What kind of engagement does watching a video entail?  If you are anti-homework, can you support the flipped classroom at all?  And of course, the biggest issue is that true flipped learning requires that you change what you do in your room with students, not just help them with homework in your presence.  I am not taking a pro- or anti-flipped model.  What I want to do is see how it relates to music education.

Is music the original flipped classroom?
Or is it impossible to flip the music classroom?

This takes us to the very heart of the study of music.  In music, you are either performing, creating (composing), or listening.  And these three are completely interwoven - one leads to another.  Your brain and your body are totally engaged whenever you are working on music.  Consider this scenario:

A 3rd grade recorder student must look at 5 lines and 4 spaces, decipher the letters of the treble clef, figure out the rhythmic values, turn the letters into numbers of fingers on their usually non-dominant left hand, tell the diaphragm and lungs to breathe in rhythm, listen to the resulting sound, adjust accordingly, hear what others are doing to play simultaneously, look at the next note while still playing the current note, and repeat the entire process over and over.  All of this must happen multiple times every second for the 3rd grade student.

It doesn't matter if the music student is in elementary music or high school orchestra.  The expectation is the same - performance - "doing" music.  Music teachers and students live under the deadline that a concert is looming.  The audience is waiting, and every moment is precious.  So students need to be engaged as much as possible - and that means in both the classroom and at home.

But what of the flipped classroom concept?  If the purpose to make best use of face-to-face time with students, how does that connect to music?  If one of the tenets of the flipped model is to have students "doing" or "performing" while in the presence of the teacher, we can say that has always been the goal of the music classroom.  Throughout history, music has meant working in the presence of an expert who can guide you to better performance.  And the expert convinces you that if you want to be truly great, you must go home and practice on your own.  Remember that recorder student?  We send that recorder home to the (ahem!) delight of parents all over.  In tech lingo, we could say music is "platform agnostic" since it doesn't matter where you are when you practice.  This might make music the original flipped classroom.

That means that musicians (and athletes, and so many other areas) are performing - are doing - both in school AND at home.  That's the best outcome of all.  In this scenario, flipping is not the question or the answer.  Engagement is.  And whatever you do to get kids engaged in your field of study - to get kids performing and achieving at a higher level - is the goal.

But I am not a fool - I know there are students who do not practice enough at home.  Just as I know there are students who can participate much more fully in the classroom.  The same happens in sports, math, music, and every other curricular area.  What I do know is that student engagement is the key to student achievement, and if the engagement is happening at both school and home, then achievement will (hopefully) increase.

Charlotte Danielson's framework says that "student engagement in learning is the centerpiece of the framework for teaching; all other components contribute to it." (domain 3c of the Framework for Teaching Evaluation Instrument)

Grant Wiggins recent article, entitled "Everything You Know About Curriculum May Be Wrong.  Really."  enshrines engagement and action as well:
"Suppose knowledge is not the goal of education.  Rather, suppose today's content knowledge is an offshoot of of successful ongoing learning in a changing world - in which 'learning' means 'learning to perform in the world."  We learn to perform, and we perform to learn.

It comes back to the basics of good teaching and learning - relationships, enthusiasm, and engagement.  There is no single recipe for the best way to accomplish them, and so the pendulum continues to swing.

Google Docs, Google Comedy

This is the 10th part (10 already?) of a series in which 5th grade musicians are researching composers and creating website based on that research using Google Apps for Education and Edmodo.

Most people would probably start introducing Google Apps by having students work collaboratively in a Google Doc.  Not us.  It has taken us 10 classes to get this far, and I have avoided Google Docs up to this point for two reasons:
1.  We needed the research and collaboration in Edmodo, the notetaking in Google Forms, and the creation of a Site to all happen first.  We did not need to use a Doc up to this point, but now the students will need to start typing their essays.
2.  I wanted to talk about embedding, sharing settings, and collaboration in Google Docs all at the same time.

So, this week, the students created a Doc for their composer biography.  The students had to be careful to name correctly, not so much for the future this time (as we did with Site URL's), but so that I could easily organize them when shared to my teacher account.  No problems with renaming - we did that with our Google Form template a few weeks back.

After a quick lesson about how Google Docs looks a lot like Microsoft Word and has many of the same features, I just had the students type a title on their Biography.  Then we went to our Sites and inserted the Document on our Biography page.  Again, no problem because the students inserted maps last class.  I think the biggest issue for elementary students as they do this inserting work is that you basically have to click "Save" three times to insert anything - once to select the media, once to save the frame settings, and then a third time to save the edits you have made to the page.  I told the students that Google just wants to make sure that you really want to make these changes - just keep clicking select/save.

Now the magic could begin.  Without confusing the students, they needed to learn that typing in your Doc would automatically change the Biography on your Site, as long as you refresh the page.  This way, the students see that even though your Doc and your Site are really two separate places, but they are linked.  If you change your Doc, it will automatically change in your Site.  Students added words to their Doc, tabbed over to their Site, refreshed the page, and found it had automatically updated!

Finally, we needed to tackle Sharing Settings.  To introduce this, a bit of comedy.  I just told them I was sending them all a new Doc to the home page of their Docs.  It only had two questions:

1.  What is the name of your composer?
2.  Where did your composer live?
Once I shared this Doc to all of them, and they all started trying to answer at once.  Hilarious, geeky chaos ensued.  I didn't plan to capture it on video, but I grabbed my iPad and started recording ...


They were hooked.  "You want to know how to do that?"  We had experienced Sharing Settings, and now I could teach them how to do it.  They all successfully shared their newly created biography doc to me.  They had to be careful to share it to me and not some other teacher, since all of our names are in the system.  I was able to show them instantly that all of their Docs were now in my account.  I will be able to comment on them as they write in the upcoming weeks.

That took 20 minutes, start to finish.  There was time leftover to start on biographies, finish gathering facts, fix issues with Sites, help catch up students who were absent, etc.  I am looking forward to a few classes of work time like this now that we have our Sites and our Docs created.

Building Sites, Building Leadership

This is part 9 in a series about 5th grade musicians in their quest to create Google Sites about composers.

Coming back from Spring break, the students needed something a little fresh to renew our excitement for our research project.  Before break, a handful of students had each created a Google Site about their composers, just to test if it would work.  This week, our task was to get everyone to create their own Google Site ... in a 30 minute period (gasp).

It was nice to have a few "experts" who had created a Site already (building leadership capacity in your own classroom).  Creating a Site is a simple, but very step-by-step process, and you really start to see the differences in elementary students.  One of the things I have found working in the lab is that there are a few kinds of computer students:

• Students who click ahead and always know what they are doing.  These students probably have had considerable computer experience at home and from previous teachers.  These are the leaders who will log in from home and try things on their own.

• Students who will follow right along with what the teacher is demonstrating and are usually successful.  This is the largest percentage of students.

• Students who know what to do, but will not proceed without approval.  These students are easy to spot because they raise their hands ... a lot.  The problem is that the teacher will end up doing nothing but answering questions from these few students for 30 minutes.  In response, I have instituted the rule that before you ask the teacher a question you must try asking at least one other student.  This does three things:  1.  It increases student collaboration,  2.  It builds student scaffolding and builds leadership, and  3.  It ensures that questions that are directed to the teacher are more serious problems.  Sometimes these are students who just fell a step or two behind.  They don't necessarily need the teacher - they need the information, which can come from other students faster than waiting for the teacher.

• Students who stare at the screen and wait for the teacher to realize they need help.  This is a very small percentage of the class, and I find that it gets smaller all the time.  These students can be harder to notice because they do not raise their hands.  You find them staring at the computer, unsure what to do when a pop-up dialogue box appears.  In response, I have suggested to students that if it didn't work the first time, just try it again (Isn't this what we all do when our own computer doesn't react the way we want the first time?)  I compared this to a baseball player who gets a strike - you don't walk back to the dugout right away.  You try again.  But, if you get more strikes, raise your hand and ask for help.

Back to our Sites - we had no problem creating Sites.  The biggest issue was naming the Sites.  The students had to be sure to spell the composer's name correctly, but we needed to add something else to make the website specific to the class and year without giving away the student's identity.  I am thinking towards the future - naming the Site "Beethoven" would create a URL in our domain that could not be reused next year.  So we add a combination of letters and numbers after the composer's name to uniquely identify the classroom and year (i.e., "Beethoven S12").  We are keeping the Sites only viewable in our own domain at this time, but will open them up later.

One side note - teachers seem to default to collaborators/editors on student Sites in Google Apps for Education.  This means teachers do not have 100% access to student Sites, especially sharing settings and deletion abilities.  I'm sure it exists at a higher administrative level in Google Apps.  But as a pilot project, it is something we will continue to look at.

Once the Site was created, we immediately created two pages.  This gives us practice with the edit button and the new page button.  The first was a biography page.  We will embed biographies on this Site next week.  The second was a page called "Where in the World?"  I asked the students to insert a map on this page of either the city where their composer was born or lived most of their life.  Easy as pie.  The "insert" command will be very valuable going forward, and I wanted them to get a taste of how to insert items into their Site.

So, by the end of 30 minutes, every student had a Site with 2 pages, including a map on one of the pages. Pretty crazy, but completely exciting for the students.  I think we are refreshed and ready to forge ahead!

Slow Road Ahead? Take a Detour!

This is the 8th part in a series in which 5th grade musicians are researching composers using Edmodo and creating website based on that research using Google Apps for Education.

A week ago, I was seriously considering dumping the entire project.  Two months of prep work, excited students, great learning taking place - dump all of it.  Why?  Because we were having network issues.  Not the kind of network issues that can easily go away - issues that could have doomed our future work.

We have the most incredible tech staff in our district.  They empower teachers and always have the right answer.  But our elementary schools have a bandwidth issue, and that is what threatened to halt the entire project in its tracks.  Actually, this coming Summer, the bandwidth issue will be fixed, but that was not going to help the students right now.

As you know from earlier posts (here and here), we had no problem on Edmodo.  I could have an entire class viewing YouTube videos about their composers and posting to Edmodo (here).  But the next class, we would try to log into Google Apps for Education, and everything would come to a stop.  We had two classes in a row where kids would log into Google Apps, and then we would all sit and wait for the next 20 minutes of a 30 minute class.  It was like "king of the hill" - whomever could log in first got to the top of the hill, and the rest of the students waited in vain.

I kept our tech staff updated, detailing these issues.  They are already well aware of this project, since it is a GAFE pilot project in our district.  But I knew the answer ahead of time - bandwidth and network traffic.  Another teacher at the middle school piloting GAFE was having not having any network issues.  Just an elementary school bandwidth issue.

Argh!  I couldn't just drop two months of work and tell the kids "Here's some posterboard - let's illustrate your composer.  And let's just open Microsoft Word and type your report."  What kind of example would that be for the kids?  But I also couldn't justify taking kids into the lab for 30 minutes at a time and having nothing educationally to show for it.  I can't justify that as a teacher, and even more as a parent.

But there was hope!  First, one of our tech staff cached all of the 5th grade student profiles on a server in our elementary building - that helped speed up the log in process considerably.  Next, I decided to have the students log into Edmodo first since we never had issues while on Edmodo.  Then, I would stagger the log in to Google Apps so we weren't all trying to do the same thing at once.  Finally, at the end of class, I had the students remain logged into GAFE so that the process would be faster next time.  Since students log off computers when finished, it was not an issue to leave themselves logged into Google Apps.

And it worked.  I had over two hours of successful classes in the lab this past week.  Students have continued their research, and a handful were far enough that we tested creating Sites in Google Apps.  That worked, too, and after Spring Break, everyone will be ready to create Sites.  I just keep crossing my fingers that our workarounds continues to work.  Thanks to our awesome tech staff for positive words and help.  You can't do a project like this alone - even the teacher needs to collaborate and be creative.

Using a Google Form to collect and organize student research

Here's how to create and use a Google Form so students can easily collect and organize research.
I used this with 5th grade students on the second day of logging into a Google Apps account.  The students were already comfortable researching in our Edmodo library and using multiple tabs in a browser.  They logged into their own Google Apps account, I lead them through the process of creating from a template, renaming it, opening the live form, and then set them free to collect facts.

Cultivating Student Researchers using Google Apps for Education

This is the 7th part of a series in which 5th grade musicians are using Edmodo and Google Apps for Education to research composers and create websites based on that research.

How do we teach students how to find the best car when they are older?
How do we teach students to select the best financial investments someday?

It all starts with research.  The ability to research is one of the most important tools we equip our students with for their future.  Teaching students to research means teaching them how to grow their own knowledge base.  It means teaching them how to select, compare, analyze, synthesize, evaluate, question, and all those other though processes that we look for in teaching.  Researchers are lifelong learners and contributors.

Teaching beginning researchers is always a fun challenge.  Think about the skills needed to research:
• Locating information
• Reading for information (this is the most important skill - it is also the most difficult skill because students must slow down)
• Putting the information into your own words
• Citing sources
• Managing the research that you collect (index cards, notetaking app, etc.)
• Organization of information (the second biggest skill - assembling collected facts into a logical order to create a new product)

I added another challenge to this list this year - how do we do paperless research?  In past posts, I talked about our Edmodo library for biographies, timelines, and videos.  That takes care of locating the information.  But what about collecting the information, citing sources, and organizing?  Did I really want to have kids writing notes on paper while sitting at a computer?  And how could I take advantage of Google Apps in this process?

My answer?  I decided to use a Google Form.  The form has just 3 questions, all required:
1.  What kind of fact will this be?  Students must choose the kind of fact from teacher-created categories.
2.  Where did you find this fact?  Students must cite their source.
3.  What is the fact?

I saved the form as a template and had the kids use my template.  I couldn't just share the form with them because then everyone's facts would end up on the same form - no good.  Each student needed their own copy from a template.  The students renamed it and opened the live form.  A quick tutorial about the 3 questions, open the Edmodo library in another tab, and - VOILA - research!  Each fact that the student enters into the form shows up on the associated spreadsheet.  The kids had no idea how the mechanics of this works - they just need to experience it first.  After a few minutes of submitting facts, I had the kids tab to their spreadsheet and they were amazed to see their list of facts growing!

The real bonus is yet to come - the Google form/spreadsheet will help the kids organize their research, too!  The magic is in question #1 - "What kind of fact is this?"  I numbered the choices and put them in a logical order from birth to death.  When the students click on the spreadsheet column header, they will be able to sort their facts numerically (A-Z) and their notes will be roughly in the order that they should appear in their essay!  Also, by putting URLs into the citation box (question #2), students can easily click to the source for their fact - very helpful when the teacher thinks a student may have an incorrect fact or when the student needs to be encouraged to dig deeper into a fact.

Are all these shortcuts cheating the students?  No, for three reasons:
1.  These are beginning researchers.  Getting them excited about research and giving them the skills is more important than the mechanics at this point.
2.  This is a music class where we only get 60 minutes per week.  We need to leverage our time in the lab for maximum productivity.
3.  Why shouldn't we harness the technology available to them now and in their future?  Do we really believe any of these kids will be using index cards in the future to organize their research?  Would you?

Research is inherently collaborative because you are using someone else's work.  Research is inherently creative because the end result of research is always something new.  Research teaches students to take action because research is always about choices.  Collaboration, creativity, and action - what more can you ask for?

First day of Google Apps for Education for Students

Episode 6 in our series ...

We got every student logged into his/her Google Apps for Education account earlier this week.  That, in itself, was a success.  These 5th grade students are the first students in our district to use Google Apps for Education, and we really didn't know what would happen.  They all got logged in, but after logging in, our network got bogged down and we never really made it much got past that point.  It didn't have anything to do with Google - it's just one of those things that happens.

The most interesting part?  Trying to get 5th graders to do the little Captcha codes where you have to copy the random numbers and letters that are almost impossible to read.  They didn't know why we had to do that, they couldn't make out the letters, they couldn't understand why the letters didn't spell a word, and they were afraid of what would happen if they got the letters wrong.

In the end, this may end up being remembered as the most difficult part of the project!

Constructing Knowledge Through Online Conversations

This is part 5 in a series of an Edmodo/Google Apps for Education project in which 5th grade musicians research composers and create websites based on that research.

After two classes getting our feet wet using Edmodo, it was time to dive in.  In the first two classes, I found the students were doing well at locating information in our Edmodo library, navigating between multiple tabs in a browser window, reading for information, putting information into their own words, and posting amazing facts to our Edmodo group.  What the students could not do well was reply to posts in a way that creates a conversation.

This is an oft-lamented issue for students and society.  Students need to know how to have a conversation in various situations:  One-to-one, small groups, large groups, and now online.  The feedback loop of a conversation often gets short-circuited.  Communication is a 21st century skill (probably an every-century skill).

So I created a screencast that showed examples from our first week - good and bad conversations.  In the screencast, I asked students to "create conversations" and reply in a way that encourages dialogue rather than discourages dialogue.  We talked about "conversation killers" - replies such as "cool" or "wow".  These are words you say when you are truly speechless - not words you use to further a discussion either in person or online.

We then had two more classes in which students were to post and reply.  In the first class, students had to look at a composer timeline and post about another composer that lived at the same time and a historical event that took place when the composer was alive.  This had the immediate benefit of creating conversations because students could connect with other students whose composers were contemporaries.  Also, students really like history.  Since many Baroque, Classical, and Romantic events took place during the years of the American colonies, revolution (5th grade topics in our school), and Civil War, the students made connections between subjects.  (On the other hand, most students did not know what the Gulf War was...)

The next class was a bonus for us - the students viewed a work by his/her composer from a teacher-created playlist of youtube videos,  one video for each composer, which I shared to our Edmodo library.  In the past, it was a struggle to get a student to listen to a selection of his/her composer's work on the stereo and fill out a listening sheet.  But having the visual and the need to make a musically-significant Edmodo post about the video created more conversations.  Students have heard John Williams' "Star Wars" theme many times, but have never seen an orchestra play it - it changes their concept of music.  And if you can see "Star Wars" as a form of classical music, it's not such a big leap to Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, or Haydn.  The student studying Antonin Dvorak pointed out that the beginning of his "From the New World" Symphony sounds like "Jaws" and "Star Wars".  That perked up the ears of the John Williams student, and we have total excitement and online conversation about how Antonin Dvorak's music is similar to John Williams.  5th grade!  You can't make this stuff up, folks.

Students will make connections (construct their own knowledge) IF we as teachers give them enough ideas and points to connect.  The brain wants to make connections.  We build lessons in multiple dimensions so that students can take action and connect the dots on their own.  As a wise colleague of mine says "He who does the thinking, does the learning."

My Three Favorite Teacher Apps This Year

One of the reasons I love my iPad is how it makes my work in front of the kids easier.  It has become something like a universal remote control that replaces the other 5 remote controls you used to fumble between.  For example, as a music teacher, I always had these things close by:

• a stack of seating charts (22 sections per week)

• boxes of CD's that matched our textbook series (about 60 CDs)

• my lesson plan book

My lesson plan book was filled with little codes to let me know which CD to use.  You might have 3 hours of classes without a break, and I would pre-load the 6-CD changer and mark down the disc number and track number in my lesson plan book.  (In the "good old days," I even had a code system for - gasp - records!)  And changing a seating chart eats ups valuable class time when you only get 60 minutes a week with students.  

All through the 2011-12 school year, my three most valuable teacher apps have been:

• SmartSeat (by Cornsoft)

• PlanBook (by Hellmansoft)

• Remote (by Apple)

The combination of these three apps have made my life easier, and have had an impact on student learning.  I can only give anecdotal evidence for that claim - less time spent on seating charts, websites that launch automatically from my lesson book, no fumbling through CD's, more prep time available to do these tasks.  These take precious minutes.  Here's a look at each of them and how they have helped me.

Smart Seat
Smart Seat is a seating chart on steroids.  Smart Seat allows you to copy and paste a list of names into a class, customize seating arrangements, scramble students, randomly choose students, take pictures of students in the app, email seating charts, track attendance, and more.  I will often put other information in the chart such as folder number or instrument number.  I never print seating charts unless I have a sub - and then it is easy enough to just email the seating chart to myself or a printer.  Have to move a student?  Just slide his/her name to a new seat.  Students can be added and deleted easily throughout the year.  At the time of this post, Smart Seat is $3.99 and has been well worth it.

PlanBook
PlanBook is more than a lesson book.  As a music teacher, I have a very complicated schedule.  I am at two schools:  a middle school which runs an A/B schedule and an elementary school on a 5-day rotation.  Plan book can handle complicated schedules, but it also lets you adjust your schedule easily for those special days that pop up.  My favorite features of PlanBook include:
• allows you to put URL's into your lesson plans and launch website directly from your lesson book.
• allows you to upload other files (such as Smart Notebook files) and launch from lesson book.
• Dropbox integration allows me to work on lesson plans anywhere, even if I don't have internet access
• Allows user to color-code individual classes
• Drag and drop to copy lessons from one section to another
PlanBook is not cheap ($35 for laptop or desktop through App Store plus $9.99 for iPad version through iTunes store), but I may never buy another lesson book.

Remote
Remote is Apple's own app to control iTunes and Apple TV ... well ... remotely.  Instead of loading all those CD's into the stereo (and even some records that I've transferred), I just launch Remote and I can control my iTunes library from anywhere in the room.  This is great as an elementary music teacher who is moving around the room or often sitting on the floor with kids.  I do have issues with it on a secure , enterprise network, but I set up a computer-to-computer network when needed.  Remote is free from the iTunes store.

So those are my top 3 this year.  I paid full price for all of them.  And not only have they made my life easier - I am sure they have an effect on student learning because I can get more done every class.

Warning ... Teaching may be addictive

You know you are in the right vocation when you can't wait to get back to work.
That happened again today as part of our composer research project.

Wednesday was our 2nd day in the computer lab as we research composers and create websites using Edmodo and Google Apps for Education.  When the students came in, they logged into Edmodo and found a new screencast I created about rules and etiquette for posting.  Basically, I asked the students to keep two things in mind:
#1 - All posts and replies should help us grow as musicians and learn about our composers
#2 - As the teacher, I see everything the students post.

Today's tasks were relatively simple - the students were to send a post to the entire class finishing this sentence: "An amazing fact about my composer is ..." and then reply to at least one other post in a way that helps us grow as musicians and learn about our composers.

I had no idea what would happen.
And I had no idea how successful it would be.

Slowly, the posts started coming.  Then more posts.  Then the replies.  Faster and faster.
I would be helping students and look down at my iPad and see "20 new posts".
Then I would read the posts and see amazing facts and replies in which students were making connections to their own lives.  This is the feeling that makes teaching addictive - giving students the skills, materials, and etiquette and letting them bloom on their own.  All I asked for was an amazing fact shared in a responsible way.

In past years, the 2nd day of the project would have looked like this:
Students using file folders of legally photocopied biographies to work with a single partner finding 25 vocabulary-type words that could be put into an online wordsearch creator.  Now, students are doing more rigorous work, making more connections to their own lives, and collaborating more with other students (= learning more).

There was one interesting moment.  In the midst of all this work, all of a sudden a student tells me someone has posted a personal note.  I look down at my iPad - sure enough.  Another student tells me the same thing.  Chatter spreads throughout the computer lab.  Aha - a teachable moment!

This student had simply sent the message "Hi Joe" (names changed) to the entire group.
I zoomed my Airplay connected iPad to the message so the class could see it together.
Me:  Look at the screen in front of the room.  What did your screencast say?
Class:  No personal messages.
Me:  Let's compare Joe's posts to Susie's right above it.  Susie's post says "Brahms became known as one of the three B's of composers - Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms."  The other post says "Hi Joe".  Which post helps us grow as musicians and learners?  Thank you for giving us an example to learn from.

The point is that students were ready to report seemingly inappropriate posting etiquette before I even could catch it.  No hard feelings - just a teachable moment.  And a learning community that will hold each other accountable.

The most amazing part of the day happened after school.  A few students were logging into their Edmodo account in the evening from home, reading more biographies, posting, and replying from home.  Learning is addictive, too.

First day in the lab

Part 4 of a series on a new Google Apps for Education project in which 5th grade music students are doing a research project about composers and creating websites.

Yesterday was our first day in the computer lab.  Was everything ready?
• Edmodo permission slips turned in ... check!
• Edmodo student accounts created ... check!
• Apple TV connected to projector and working ... check!
• Screencast uploaded and waiting for students in Edmodo ... check!
• Google Form composer survey shared and waiting for students in Edmodo ... check!

My biggest fear was that I would have messed up a username or password as I created Edmodo accounts, but all 50 accounts turned out to work perfectly.

Why am I using Edmodo?

First of all, we need a "library" for our composer information.  I like that Edmodo gave me that ability.  It also lets me create folders for various types of information about our composers (i.e., biographies, timelines, images).
Second, Edmodo allows for the collaboration that I was looking for with this project.
Third, it will allow students to work on the project from anywhere in the world if they so choose.
Fourth, I find the user interface very intuitive for kids.
There were other options like Livebinders and Diigo, but I picked Edmodo for these reasons.

When students logged into Edmodo for the first time, you could hear several kids quietly exclaiming, "It looks like Facebook!"  I had carefully avoided that word as I had told kids about the project.  "Yes, it looks like Facebook, and we will discuss similarities and differences later.  But for now, here is your task ..." and we got to work.  No posting today.

The first task included watching a screencast I created (Quicktime-Schooltube) about opening multiple tabs in a browser window, finding our Edmodo biography library in one tab, and opening our Google Form composer survey in another tab.  By the end of class, the students had to use their biographies to answer basic questions about their composer.  The questions ask about country where he/she lived, male/female composer, and musical era.  The task is more about finding your way around Edmodo than gathering information, the students don't realize it and it does give us good data.  When finished, I will share the data from the form with them.

Most successfully completed the survey.  A few got to the end of class and did not realize that the survey does not save if you only completed half of it and will need to start over next time.

Another note - plugging my Apple TV into the projector allowed me to use my iPad to roam the room and give instruction without constantly running back to my laptop.  I was logged into Edmodo as a fake student in my class through Safari and as myself (teacher account) through the Edmodo app.  I was able to demonstrate Edmodo from both the teacher and student side at the double-click of a button.